The myths of England’s “absurd laws”

Something that annoys me no end, and I realise there are
probably more important things to get annoyed about, but do bear with me,
are urban legends, specifically those concerning old laws of the UK.

On Tuesday the 6th of November 2007, UKTV Gold published the results of a survey they conducted,
where they asked 3,931 people to select the most ludicrious laws
“from a shortlist of bizarre rules” (says
BBC News)
—
I think they probably took the lists that were published in silly season August
(e.g. this one at The Times).
It obviously being a slow news day, this has been picked up by
the Telegraph, the Mail,
even
the Register, blindly quoting “Britain’s most ludicrous laws”.

But nowhere do any of them provide any evidence that the options
presented in the survey are actual, extant laws of this country.
So this amounts to little more than UKTV Gold saying some things
are laws, some people saying they’re ludicrous, and the media parroting
the press release, going “Blimey, these laws are ludicrous!”

I realise this might have involved doing some journalism, but
this is especially embarrassing for the BBC, which ran a lovely
piece on antiquated laws by Tom Geoghegan back in January 2006:
Ever been
drunk driving a steam engine? — and which they allude to in
one paragraph of their
current article. You can tell which paragraph
it is as it quotes its sources.

To go into more detail on the 10 most ludicrous “laws”:

Illegal to die in the Houses of Parliament:
A state funeral requires a motion or vote in Parliament, so
Nigel Cawthorne, often quoted on this “most ludicrous” law
can't be correct when he says dying in Parliament entitles you to
a state funeral.
BBC article debunks this.
(maybe dying in a Royal Palace means the state pays for your funeral)
once and for all.